But once those levers have been pulled, and the tool kit is empty, many have been left with only words. And then it still depends on who is using them — when and where.

Canada’s policymakers have been choosing their words carefully since their main tool — the benchmark overnight lending rate, used to keep inflation in check — was put on hold more than three years ago.

Even before that, our central bank — then led by Mark Carney — slashed the key rate to a record low 0.25% and pioneered what was termed “conditional guidance” — promising in April 2009 to keep borrowing costs unchanged for a specific period of time, as long as inflation was on target. As the economy began to recover, that rate was eventually raised to 1% in September 2010, where it remains.

Now, with a new Bank of Canada governor and slowing growth here, as well as mixed economic signals globally, words are taking on renewed significance.

Stephen Poloz, 58, the former head of Economic Development Canada — the Ottawa-based federal agency that provides companies with a leg up, such as financing and marketing, to break into new markets — took over from Mr. Carney four months ago.

So far, he has kept his words to a minimum, limiting his speaking engagements and — to the surprise of many central-banker watchers — enlisting his deputy governors to provide some specific public-policy guidance. At the same, Mr. Poloz will continue to meet with business leaders on their turf — something he relished in his 14 years at the EDC, most recently as its president, before returning to the Bank of Canada where he began his public-sector career years earlier.

“He’s talking about leading from behind and depersonalizing monetary policy — and I think all of that is good,” said Christopher Ragan, associate economics professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“So, he’s not going to take all the juicy speeches, and he’s going to let his senior deputy, his No. 2, and his [other] deputies give better speeches. And I think all of that is very good.”

Nothing surprising in that — deputies are regularly dispatched around the country to address members of the business community and take their questions. But while Mr. Macklem covered familiar ground on the uncertain state of the global economy, he also did the unexpected: offering an updated forecast — in this case, a downgrade — for the Canadian economy.

“We are now expecting growth in the third and fourth quarters of this year to be in the 2%-2.5% range before strengthening next year as the rotation to exports and investment gains momentum,” he said. That is a change from the Bank of Canada’s previous forecast of 3.8% for the third quarter of this year and 2.5% the following quarter.

Such specific updates traditionally come during regular policy announcements, such as in the bank’s quarterly Monetary Policy Report (MPR).

“It is interesting that they chose to revise their forecasts in a speech in between MPR release dates,” Mr. Ragan said.

“A perfectly workable alternative would have been to talk with some precision about the higher expected growth in Q2 and therefore the lower-than-expected bounce back in Q3. And that kind of talk would have conditioned the markets well for arrival of the Q3 MPR [on Oct. 23].”

I do consider this [speech] unusual — and a welcome new chapter in the bank’s communication

Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said “the ‘news’ wasn’t really unexpected. The last rate announcement changed the line about a narrowing of the output gap to have it start in 2014 . The only surprise was that [Mr.] Poloz didn’t mention such details in his [Sept. 18] speech.”

Mr. Macklem’s speech also came on the same day the U.S. went into shutdown mode after Democrats and Republicans could not break their spending impasse. Things could very likely change before the Oct. 23 bank report, given the next U.S. deadline — this one for agreeing to a far more critical new debt ceiling — is set for Oct. 17.

“And that’s all an argument for them not doing what they did,” Mr. Ragan said.

The Bank of Canada has played down the significance of Mr. Macklem’s forecast update, saying it was not the first time a senior deputy governor has done so in a speech. However, a review of those speeches shows they did not provide specific details of downgrades.

“I do consider this [speech] unusual — and a welcome new chapter in the bank’s communication,“ said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “Having the senior deputy governor deliver the news is also welcome, as their speeches will now garner much more attention.”

Tuesday was also the first time a speech by any governor — other than the top one — has been provided ahead of time to the media in a so-called lockup, giving reporters time to digest the message and get it out just as the public address begins.

“It was very clear that when you look at the last MPR forecast that they over-estimated how weak the second quarter was and they over-estimated how much of a bounce back there would be in Q3,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at TD Economics.

“My suspicion is that they just recognized that they were so far below what the outcome was going to be they didn’t want to wait until the MPR,” he said.

“So, it’s also more transparency. The Bank of Canada has changed its thinking and it wants to signal it to the market and to the public, and the bank is not going to get hung up about who’s going to deliver the message.”

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